As for people upset about their forms being returned by Australia Post, I have had this problem when applying for seasons tickets to Canberra Rep. Annoying but not the fault of the ABS. As for privacy, Coles knows more about me from my buying patterns than you could glean from the census. Is this country intellectually challenged? I wouldn't dare say "moronic".

M.Davis, Charnwood

I note that quite a few commentators are now saying that because of the debacle surrounding this year's Census, there is no way known that we can introduce electronic voting. I think we are comparing apples with oranges here.

The big difference here is we are not talking about allowing people logging into the AEC website from their homes. As per our voting in the ACT elections, voters would still need to attend a voting station, and vote by utilising machinery that communicate by means other than the World Wide Web.

Kim Fitzgerald, Deakin

I've always thought that what makes a place great to live is the good friends you have there. If Bob Katter feels Canberra is "soulless" despite his 23 years here, he has only himself to blame.

G.Fan, Reid

The Rio swimming organisers are lucky they didn't have Kate Carnell on hand to advise them on the water turning green or the pool would have been treated with copper sulphate until it turned blue again.

George Beaton, Greenway

Yves Daccord, the director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, complained that "the big discussions have been about the financial crisis and about the security crisis. And that's not enough" ("Aid agencies at tipping point", August 14, p21).

He could be referring to the aftermath of the dropping of the Iron and the Bamboo Curtains, to the global financial war, to pan-Islamism or neo-Marxism. He could mean the human wave of "immigration" into the developed world. He could be talking about climate change. Unsurprisingly, all these factors are intricately linked. Just suppose, though, that the scientists are correct, that global warming is occurring, that the tipping point has passed, that even if all anthropogenic factors ceased immediately, it would still take millennia for the warming to cease and atmospheric carbon dioxide to return to pre-industrial levels. Suppose the very existence of humanity is in serious jeopardy and millions upon millions will die. Who wants to discuss that?

Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor

In this new, big, frightening world where "disruption" appears to reign supreme, it is not just big banks which are untouchable ("Why big banks are untouchable", Sunday CT, August 14, p23). The public commons has been appropriated, and wholly occupied, by wraith-like ephemera, purportedly worth squillions of dollars, serving up material and intangibles in catering to created appetites for wants demanding instant gratification. While ordinary mortals – as consumers – have some notion of their existence by way of receipt of their "beneficence", to taxation authorities, the world over, they are slippery, elusive and invisible!

Australia's banks operate at the pleasure of the community, which, theoretically, has authority to deny social licence to transact business to those (corporate entities) regarded as not fit and proper legal persons. Banks have fouled their own nests with blatantly corrupt behaviour towards investors.

That Australian taxpayers' generosity, by acting as their guarantors of last resort, might have contributed to record profits goes unacknowledged, and unrewarded.

Similarly, global corporations which operate out of post office boxes in Panama, Delaware, Cayman Islands or Bahamas, circumvent the social contract, taking all that taxpayers provide but ignoring the archaic (now) noblesse oblige. They are parasites, with total disregard for their host communities' survival.

Albert M.White, Queanbeyan

Tony Abbott was reported (Sydney Morning Herald, August 12) as re-opening Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. He must have forgotten saying in 2014 when he finally decided to leave Section 18C alone: "In the end, leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this decision."

Does national unity no longer matter to him? He might also consider the dog whistling US presidential race and the worries of remote control stochastic terrorism here too. A blog at stochasticterrorism.blogspot.com.au explains this in more detail in the US context, with the same concerns relevant here. It describes the whipping up of lone wolves by those given media platforms to promote hatred and fear but who can wring their hands after a tragedy and deny that it had anything to do withthem.

Despite Senator Leyonhjelm's claim that none of us are responsible for the feelings of others, Hitler for one once manipulated the feelings of millions over race.

This is still not an ideal world of only peaceful, tolerant and well adjusted people and Section 18C may put some brake on inciting, as the blogger writes, "random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable".

It is easy to object to violent extremism but where is the responsibility for the effects on overly receptive others of bigoted free speech from public platforms of power and influence?

Various Parliamentarians would be more usefully employed addressing community issues such as unemployment, structural disadvantage, social alienation and untreated mental illness.

Athene Anderson, Fisher

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).